Guide · updated 31.07.2026 · 16 min read · Lucent Legal team

UAE Taxes for Russians in 2026: What You Actually Owe

"There are no taxes in Dubai" is the line that opens almost every conversation about moving here, and it's only half true. Personal income for an individual in the UAE genuinely isn't taxed — but leaving Russia comes with its own, separate tax story: residency status, non-resident rates, FNS (Russia's tax authority) reporting, and currency-control law, none of which disappear just because you now pay rent in dirhams. Below is how the UAE side actually works, what changes in your standing with the Russian state after you move, and how the new double tax treaty between the two countries affects all of it. This is an overview, not individual advice — figures and procedures are checked against public sources current for 2026, but only a tax consultant or lawyer can run the numbers for your specific situation.

UAE Taxes: 0% on Personal Income, Not 0% on Business

Start with the part that's genuinely simpler than the myths suggest. The UAE has never had a personal income tax, a dividend tax, a wealth tax, or an inheritance tax for individuals — none of them exist at the federal level. Salary, rental income from property you personally own, and capital gains on personal investments are all untaxed by the UAE.

But since 1 June 2023, the UAE has run a corporate tax (Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022): 0% on a company's profit up to AED 375,000 a year, and 9% on anything above that. It applies to companies and to individuals running a licensed business — including freelancers on a freelance licence and owners of sole-establishment-type structures — not to an employee simply drawing a salary under an employment contract with a UAE employer, whose personal income still isn't taxed at all.

The third piece is VAT, introduced in 2018 at a standard 5% on most goods and services, including restaurants, commercial property rent, and most retail purchases. For an ordinary resident this shows up as a line on the receipt, not a separate filing — the business collects and remits VAT, not the individual.

Who Actually Owes the 9% Corporate Tax

If you're simply employed by a UAE company and draw a salary, the 9% rule doesn't touch you personally — your employer pays tax on its own profit, not you on your salary. If you run a business through a freelance licence, a free zone company, or a mainland company, the AED 375,000 profit threshold and the 9% rate above it already apply to you as a business.

There's a separate wrinkle for free zones: a Qualifying Free Zone Person can keep the 0% rate on "qualifying income" if it meets a set of conditions — but that's not automatic, it's a separate registration and reporting regime with its own requirements. Whether the relief applies to a specific business is worth confirming with a UAE tax consultant rather than assuming from general articles online.

Russian Tax Residency: The 183-Day Rule

The key term here is tax residency of Russia. Under Article 207 of Russia's Tax Code, a person is a tax resident if they spent at least 183 calendar days in Russia within any 12 consecutive months. The days don't need to be consecutive — it's a cumulative count of days physically present in Russia over the period.

The point that trips people up: there's no application to file for "losing residency" — the status isn't declared, it's a matter of fact. The tax authority determines it itself at the end of the calendar year, based on actual entry/exit dates from border-control records. Spend 183 days or more in Russia over the year and you're a resident; spend fewer and you're a non-resident — and that automatically changes which tax rules apply to you.

If residency is regained partway through a year (say, you return and cross the 183-day mark again), income earned before that threshold is taxed retroactively at the non-resident rate (30%), and income after it at the resident's progressive scale (13% to 22%).

Non-Resident Tax Rates in Russia: 30%, With a Real Exception for Remote Workers

The baseline rule is simple and blunt: a Russian non-resident is taxed only on income from Russian sources (not worldwide income, unlike a resident), but at a higher rate — typically 30%, with no deductions (property, social, or standard).

There's a significant exception here that directly concerns many people who've moved to the UAE — remote employees of Russian companies. Since 1 January 2024 (Federal Law No. 389-FZ), income earned by remote workers under an employment contract with a Russian employer is taxed at resident rates regardless of tax status — in 2024 that meant 13% on income up to 5 million rubles a year and 15% above it; from 1 January 2025, the same general progressive scale applies to this income (13% to 22%, depending on the amount). Since 2025, the same logic extends to people working from abroad for Russian clients under civil-law contracts, not just employment contracts. The 30% rate doesn't apply to this income.

If the income isn't salary under an employment or civil-law contract with a Russian company — for example, rent from Russian property, dividends from a Russian company, or the sale of assets in Russia — the 30% rate applies to a non-resident (dividend rates can differ and are worth checking against the current Tax Code text or with an accountant; sources aren't fully consistent on every income type).

FNS Reporting: Foreign Accounts and CFC Rules

Separate from the resident/non-resident question, there's an obligation to notify FNS (Russia's Federal Tax Service) about foreign bank accounts. This applies to currency residents of Russia — by default, all Russian citizens except those who've lived abroad continuously for more than a year under one of the law's categories — not just tax residents.

Baseline rules for 2026: - Opening, closing, or changing the details of a foreign bank account must be reported to FNS within one month of the event. - The penalty for not filing the notification is 4,000-5,000 rubles for individuals; for filing late but still filing, 1,000-1,500 rubles. - If a Russian tax resident controls a foreign company or structure (a controlled foreign company, CFC) — more than 25% individually, or more than 10% where Russian residents collectively hold more than 50% — they must file a CFC notification: for individuals, the 2026 deadline is 30 April, and the penalty for not submitting supporting profit documents is 500,000 rubles.

The CFC notification is filed specifically by Russian tax residents, so if you've genuinely lost tax residency (183+ days outside Russia), that obligation doesn't apply to you for that year — but if residency is regained, it has to be caught up, including for past periods.

Currency Control Law: The Same 183 Days, a Different Purpose

A separate rule, often confused with tax residency, is currency residency under Federal Law 173-FZ on currency regulation and control. Formally, all Russian citizens are currency residents, but the law exempts anyone who spent more than 183 days abroad in a calendar year: they're released from the obligation to notify FNS about opening/closing foreign accounts and from filing the annual report on funds flow through those accounts for that year.

In plain terms: if a year closes with more than 183 days spent outside Russia, you don't need to file either the account-opening notification or the funds-flow report for that year. The threshold for when the funds-flow report is required at all is also tied to account turnover — sources cite roughly 600,000 rubles a year as the line for simplified/exempt reporting on accounts in countries that exchange financial information with Russia; the exact conditions for a specific jurisdiction and account type are worth confirming separately, since the rules get fine-tuned periodically.

The Russia-UAE Tax Treaty: Old Agreement vs New (2025-2026)

Until recently, the treaty in force between Russia and the UAE dated to 2011 and was narrow in scope — it mainly covered government bodies, central banks, and similar entities, not ordinary individuals or businesses facing double taxation.

That changed: on 17 February 2025, a new, full double tax treaty was signed. The UAE ratified it on 27 May 2025 and Russia on 7 July 2025 (Federal Law No. 189-FZ of 07.07.2025), and it took effect on 18 July 2025. The point that matters in practice: the new treaty applies to relevant taxes and tax periods from 1 January 2026 — meaning it's already in force for the 2026 tax year.

The main change from the old version: the new treaty covers individuals and private business for the first time, not just government entities, and sets a preferential 10% rate on passive income — dividends, interest, and royalties — instead of potential double taxation under both countries' domestic rates. How the treaty applies in practice to a specific situation (whether a UAE Tax Residency Certificate is required, how the tax credit process in Russia works) is an area where it's sensible to get advice rather than rely on general wording in articles, until more 2026 practice accumulates.

UAE Tax Residency Certificate (TRC)

Separate from Russian residency status, there's UAE tax residency status itself — the Tax Residency Certificate (TRC), issued by the UAE's Federal Tax Authority once certain conditions on days present and visa/housing in the country are met. The TRC is the document used to claim treaty benefits and, in some cases, to help demonstrate to the Russian tax authority that residency has changed. Requirements for getting a TRC and the exact day thresholds change over time, so it's worth confirming them directly with the FTA or with a consultant who specialises in this specific document, rather than relying on averaged figures from general overviews.

This material is for information only and is not legal advice. UAE law changes — a lawyer will assess how it applies to your situation.